Hendrix's Eccentric Commentary

1. “Waterloo,”  1970.  The don’t make them like this any more:  a cast of thousands, made possible by renting part of the Soviet Union’s Army, some attempt at showing Napoleonic tactics, Rod Steiger doing Napoleon, and Christopher Plummer seemingly channeling Wellington.
2. “Battle of Britain,”   1969.  The sky is darkened with real aircraft and some very good aerial photography.  Another great cast with Laurence Olivier playing Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowling and actors of a similar caliber playing the other leads.
3. “Gettysburg,”  1993..  Yet another cast of thousands, in this case American Civil War re-enactors provide unmatched visuals.  Sam Elliot has a star turn at Brig. Gen. John Buford and Jeff Daniels does a spectacular job of portraying Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain  — and turned him into such a popular hero that the tour guides at Gettysburg started wearing t-shirts with a picture of Daniels as Chamberlain with an orange bar through it and the caption “Joshua Who?”
4. “The Longest Day,”  1962.  A cast of at least hundreds for some of the landing scenes, and apparently every star in Hollywood and Britain at the time playing one role or another.  Based on the Cornelius Ryan book for both good and ill.  One of the last of the great black and white epics.
5. “A Bridge too Far,” 1977.  The last of the big battle movies with another cast of at least hundreds for a few scenes (including part of the Parachute Regiment doing an airdrop) and a fair amount of the right equipment.  Also based on the Cornelius Ryan book.  Another stellar cast of top-ranked actors playing the leads.
6. “Sink the Bismarck,” 1960.  Actually does a good job of telling what went on in the pursuit of the Bismarck, with well done (for the time) visuals.
7. “Appointment in London,” 1953.  A mostly forgotten classic that gives a good picture of Bomber Command’s war and what went on to stage a night bomber raid.  The  author of the screenplay served with Guy Gibsons of Dam Buster fame, but Dirk Bogarde (the lead) seems to be doing a Leonard Chesire impression, and does so quite well.  This movie is much better than “Dam Busters” which came out two years latter and which reeked of bravado.
8. “Midway,” 1976.  Sort of a sequel to 1970’s “Tora, Tora, Tora” which came out in 1970, but better written and does a reasonable job of telling the audience what went on at the battle.  Much, much, much better that the “Midway” with came out in 2019 which had lots of CGI and little else.  Yet another star-studded cast, the movie rightly emphasizes the role of Raymond Spruance, played by Glenn Ford, with Hal Holbrook being as folksy as he could be as Joe Rochefort, and Henry Fonda making his second appearance as Chester Nimitz.
9. “Enigma,” 2001.  Perhaps a surprise entry in the list, but code-breaking had a huge impact on the Battle of the Atlantic  which this films discusses.  It has some moments of overdone melodrama but another great cast carries off, and it actually manages to convey some idea of what went into breaking the Enigma cipher.
10. “Black Hawk Down,” 2001.  Seemingly very realistic and gives a picture of combat and of a battle going very wrong.  Coming out just before the USA invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein allegedly watched it to prepare for the American attack.

Don’t worry if you favorites don’t appear on this list, I intend to do three others at least:  Best Movies about the Experience of War;  Command is a Lonely Place;  and This is How We Want to See Ourselves.